The UCLA women’s volleyball team got exactly what it was
looking for against Washington State on Thursday night.
The No. 4 Bruins swept the Cougars in the first match of their
Washington road trip 3-0 (30-27, 30-28, 30-25) to extend their road
winning streak to 19 matches.
With the win, the Bruins (22-1, 9-1 Pac-10) also temporarily
gained sole possession of first place in the Pac-10, taking a
half-game lead over Stanford.
Senior middle blocker Nana Meriwether once again led the Bruins
to victory, hitting .370 with 13 kills, two solo blocks and four
block assists.
Junior middle blocker Rachell Johnson led the Bruins in kills
with 14, junior outside hitter Katie Carter had 12 kills, and
sophomore Kaitlin Sather made the most out of her start, garnering
10 kills and hitting .259.
Adetokunbo Faleti led the Cougars (14-10, 2-8) with 18 kills,
but the effort proved to be futile.
The Bruins win secured a two-match sweep of the Cougars this
year ““ UCLA also defeated Washington State 3-1 earlier this
season.
WASHINGTON TONIGHT: The Bruins will look to
come away with a sweep of the Washington schools tonight as they
travel to Seattle to face the Washington Huskies.
The No. 6 Huskies (18-3, 8-2) extended their home victory streak
to 26 matches with a 3-1 victory over USC Thursday night and will
put their home winning streak on the line against UCLA.
“It’s going to be a big task,” Johnson said.
“But I think we’re up for it.”
When the Huskies and Bruins met at Pauley Pavilion back on Sept.
28, it was truly a battle for the ages.
Washington had no trouble taking the first two games from UCLA,
and seemed well on their way to an easy victory.
But UCLA came back inspired on the break in between games to
dominate Game 3, hold off a furious Husky comeback in Game 4, and
seal the match with a Game 5 victory.
The match brought memories back from last year, when the Bruins
had a similar dramatic victory against the Huskies at Pauley in
five games. That win last year gave coach Andy Banachowski his
1,000th career victory and was Washington’s only loss of the
entire season, as the Huskies would go on to win the National
Championship.
However, when the Bruins traveled to Seattle last season, it was
a much different story.
Washington had a dominating three-game sweep of the Bruins, who
didn’t have more than 24 points in any of the three
games.
“They’ve really developed a strong following,”
coach Andy Banachowski said. “Certainly, when you play in
front of your home crowd, it just inspires you more. They’ve
got that going for them.”
Since getting swept by UCLA and USC when they made the trip to
Los Angeles a month ago, the Huskies have now won six consecutive
matches and are third in the Pac-10 standings.
A win against UCLA would tie them in the standings with the
Bruins.